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MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2014Ben JacobsonMatt MorrisonChip RankSeth TuttleST. LOUIS, MISSOURI THE MODERATOR: Number 3 seed Northern Iowa Panthers are with us. Seth Tuttle, Chip Rank, Matt Morrison represent the players, student‑athletes up on the stage. Ben Jacobson is the head coach. Going to ask Ben to start off with a statement, and then we'll go to questions for all four gentlemen. COACH JACOBSON: Played our best basketball of the year, winning five of the last six. I think more important than winning five of those six games, our defensive rebounding has improved greatly. We've had really good leadership. Obviously, some ups and downs in the middle of our season, but we continued to practice really well. That leadership, obviously, is sitting up here with me right now with what Matt and Chip have done, and obviously what Seth has done for us. Matt and Chip have been terrific in terms of their leadership and making sure we practice right even when we were struggling a little bit in the middle of the year. And that's paid off for us big time. We've got good momentum right now. It's going to be a heck of a game tomorrow, but we do come in with some momentum, and that's good. Q. Coach, talk a little bit, Anthony Beane has had a couple of pretty good games against you, but he's really against everyone else playing really well right now. What have you seen in his development the last few weeks, maybe on tape? COACH JACOBSON: Since he's moved to the point‑‑ and I'm sure Barry's talked about it plenty, but since they made that move and put the ball in his hands, that's‑‑ in a lot of ways, that's changed it for Anthony and for their team. They've played very well since that time. He's a hard guy to play against because he's making three, making the three‑point shot at a very high percentage. So you've got to be on top of him when he catches it. He's very good off the bounce. His ability to make that pull‑up jump shot anywhere from 12 to 19 feet, there aren't that many guys that do that anymore. And then he's big enough and strong enough to score at the basket. When you can score in all three of those ways and you're a good free‑throw shooter, that‑‑ obviously, he's worked hard to improve the areas that he's needed, but he's hard to play against because he can score in a lot of different ways. Q. Coach, I wanted to ask you, as far as Seth's game speaks for itself, but you changed the starting lineup, kind of midway through the Valley season. How much of that was kind of a spark for you guys? You mentioned the defense and rebounding, but just the starting cast of characters to help his game out. COACH JACOBSON: That happened to coincide with the six‑game run we're on. From a defense and rebounding standpoint, Marvin Singleton has done a good job at that power forward position for us. Having Jeremy in the starting lineup on the wing gives us more size than when Deon and Wes were starting together. And Wes as our starting point guard is bigger and longer than Deon is. So we have a unit that's been better at defending and rebounding. I will tell you the other thing that has taken place with this team‑‑ and it happened with the change in the starting lineup. The way in which Chip, Deon in particular, and Nate Buss to an extent, the way in which they handled themselves coming out of the starting lineup, maybe having to sacrifice some minutes so we can get what we felt was a better defensive, rebounding type team on the floor and come off the bench and provide what they do best, and a lot of that is at the offensive end of the floor. They've made improvements defensively in terms of rebounding, but the way they've approached it has helped our team. That, as much as our defense and rebounding has improved, as I talked about, our leadership has been great. When guys are willing to sacrifice, when they come out of the starting lineup and continue to practice as hard or even harder, that sends the right message to your team. Q. Seth, sometimes all the weight can kind of fall on a big guy a little bit that's required. But Nate has played really well. I think he's 5 of 18 three‑pointers. How big is it having Nate Buss there with you and what he can do outside? How does that make your life easier? SETH TUTTLE: Nate has been playing really well for us lately. He's been rebounding for us. He's been putting the ball in the basket. After that surgery‑‑ his knee problem that he had, he's come back and played really good basketball. Having him on the floor being able to space out‑‑ he's, like Coach mentioned, with Beane, you're going to have to be right on him. And having him on the floor, it really opens up the middle more. It's hard for teams to double so much in the post knowing that we can kick it out and get a reversal pass, and if it ends up in Buss' hands, you know, he's been hot lately. So he's been playing really well, and hopefully he can continue that. Q. As seniors, Matt and Chip, last go‑round for you guys here at the tournament. Give us your thoughts on that. And also, what kinds of things have you talked about to the younger guys that are making their first appearance at the tournament to help them be ready for what they'll face tomorrow night? MATT MORRISON: Since it's the last go‑round, you've got to put all the chips on the table and just give everything you've got. It's been awesome. I love coming down here. Coach has kind of mentioned with us before about it's kind of the team that's ready to really focus and lock in from the get‑go and takes that first punch. So I think with the younger guys, you know, just playing loose. This is it right here. Might as well give it your all. CHIP RANK: I'm definitely with Matt. We're ready to go this weekend. This week we've been preparing really well. We're really excited. With the younger guys, we kind of prepared them. Don't look at the big stands. Same court, same hoop size. Just go out there and play and bring home a championship. Q. Jake, what other problems does Southern Illinois present to you guys? COACH JACOBSON: They're‑‑ outside of Jackson and Beane, which are a handful for us and have been for most teams, those two guys have been terrific. They create a lot of offense for their team. They also‑‑ those two make things a little bit easier for the other guys in that lineup, or they do a good job of helping those other guys get quality looks or better looks. In addition to that, though, Dave, the way in which they've rebounded the basketball against everybody‑‑ they've been the best rebounding team in our league outside of Wichita, and they've got‑‑ for the most part, an undersized lineup. They're playing a freshman at that power forward in the starting lineup. He's 6'5" or 6'6", but he's extremely active, and their guards rebound the ball so well. I think that's what's really fueled their run. They're 7‑3 their last ten, and their losses are at Wichita in a close game, at Indiana State in a close game, and we were able to get them at our place later in the year. Otherwise, they'd beat everybody. I think that has happened, one being going ‑‑ you know, moving to the point, but their rebounding, especially at the offensive end of the floor, has been terrific. That for tomorrow's game‑‑ we have to find a way to win that battle. There's no two ways around it. We have to find a way to win that rebounding battle tomorrow. Q. The first time you guys met this season, it came down to the wire. Then in your guys' place, you handled it pretty well. How does the confidence from a win like that factor in going into this tournament and does it at all? COACH JACOBSON: You know, I don't know that that will factor in much with tomorrow's game. Simply because both teams, very different from what we played each other the first time. I don't know that‑‑ Barry may feel differently, but I don't know that either one of our teams was playing great the first time we saw each other. The second time we did, both teams were playing very well. We put together a very good game at the defensive end, and we rebounded the ball. So we were able to‑‑ once we got up ten, we were able to keep it there, different than at their place. They were able to get back in that game and win that game because of the way they rebounded. Again, so much of it will come back to rebounding. I think from a confidence and momentum standpoint, I think it's more about how you're playing over the course of some time. For us it's been six games. For them it's been ten games. As opposed to just that one game, saying, "Hey, we did this, and now we can get them." Both teams have good momentum, and both teams, I would think, will be very confident when that game starts tomorrow. Q. Seth, sometimes when a team is playing well offensively and scoring points and playing fast, it's easy to let the defense slip a little bit. Did that happen with this team and have they kind of gotten back to that defensive mentality over the last six games or so? COACH JACOBSON: This ought to be an interesting answer. SETH TUTTLE: Yeah, I mean, I don't really know. We were in a rhythm offensively. We like to get out and push. We like to make things happen on the offensive end. I think it just took us a while, and finally we found a groove on the defensive end. It might have had to do with Coach changing up the starting lineup a little bit, maybe tweaking things a little bit. I think people just‑‑ I think we locked in a lot more on the defensive end, and we've been playing a lot better on the defensive side of the ball. I think that's why we've been a lot more successful lately. Q. [No microphone] COACH JACOBSON: The thing I would add as well, I knew there was an aspect of this coming with our team this year. As we started the year, Matt, Chip, and Seth, along with Deon, and then Bohannon, he played 20 minutes a game last year. But those five guys were the only guys really that have played for us. So our defense, our toughness to an extent, our confidence, the ability to get into some games, we had some great nonconference games, obviously, getting through a league season. To get into some of those games and have to experience getting beat in a close game, go through some of those games, you have to do that as a group in order to grow. For our program, if you go back four or five years or five years, we didn't come out of the gates defending and rebounding the way we needed to. It took us 2 1/2 months, and then we did for a long time after that. So I knew some of this was coming. With Wes being new and Jeremy being a freshman and some of the guys that have been in our program that haven't played. But I would say it took us longer than what any of us would have liked, players and coaches included. These guys practiced great all year. They've been working at it. They wanted to defend and rebound better. So it's taken a little bit longer. But felt like coming into the year, because we were so young and so new in some spots, that it was going to take a little bit of time. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much for your time and best of luck tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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